Our inboxes have been flooded this morning with the great news: today the UN Human Rights Council passed a historic resolution affirming equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. This is a really big deal -- it's the first time that an official UN resolution has focused exclusively on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity. The resolution also commissions an official UN study on how LGBT people around the world are impacted by discriminatory laws and violence.

This victory was a long time in the making. Advocates and activists in South Africa worked closely with the South African government to introduce this resolution. A coalition of civil society advocates, including our friends at ARC International, pushed until the last minute for this unprecedented vote. And hundreds of you responded to our urgent campaign alert, flooding foreign offices around the world, urging this vote.

Together we made a difference.

From social networks to the streets, from court houses to the corridors of the United Nations, LGBT people around the world are fighting, and winning, the simple right to live and love freely. This global movement for LGBT equality is gathering speed. Thanks so much for being a part of it.

Let us know what this victory means to you. Leave us a message on our Facebook wall and read what others are saying about this historic moment.

All Out is bringing people together in every corner of the planet and of every identity - lesbian, gay, straight, transgender and all that’s between and beyond - to build a world in which everyone can live freely and be embraced for who they are.

GENEVA — The top U.N. human rights body declared Friday there should be no discrimination or violence against people based on their sexual orientation, a vote Western countries called historic but Islamic states firmly rejected.

The controversial resolution marked the first time that the Human Rights Council recognized the equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The text, presented by South Africa, was adopted with 23 countries in favor and 19 against.

"All over the world, people face human rights abuses and violations because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, including torture, rape, criminal sanctions, and killing," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement issued in Washington.

"Today's landmark resolution affirms that human rights are universal," she said, calling it a "historic moment."

"This marks a significant milestone in the long struggle for equality, and the beginning of a universal recognition that LGBT persons are endowed with the same inalienable rights — and entitled to the same protections — as all human beings," President Barack Obama said in a separate statement. "The United States stands proudly with those nations that are standing up to intolerance, discrimination, and homophobia. Advancing equality for LGBT persons should be the work of all peoples and all nations."

Backers included the United States, the European Union, Brazil and other Latin American countries. Those against included Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Pakistan. China, Burkina Faso and Zambia abstained, Kyrgyzstan didn't vote and Libya was earlier suspended from the rights body.

The resolution expressed "grave concern at acts of violence and discrimination, in all regions of the world, committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity."

More importantly, activists said, it also established a formal U.N. process to document human rights abuses against gays, including discriminatory laws and acts of violence. According to Amnesty International, consensual same-sex relations are illegal in 76 countries worldwide, while harassment and discrimination are common in many more.

"The Human Rights Council has taken a first bold step into territory previously considered off-limits," said Graeme Reid, director of the LGBT Rights program at Human Rights Watch. "We hope this groundbreaking step will spur greater efforts to address the horrible abuses perpetrated on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity."

"Today's resolution breaks the silence that has been maintained for far too long," said John Fisher of the gay rights advocacy group ARC International. "It's clear that the resolution will serve as an entry point for further debate at the United Nations."

South African Ambassador Jerry Matthews Matjila said the aim was for a dialogue on discrimination and violence meted out to those "whose only crime seems to be their choice in life."

But delegations from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Bangladesh took the floor to reject the text in a heated debate held on the last day of the council's three-week session.

Mauritania's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Cheikh Ahmed Ould Zahaf, said that the issue did not fall within the scope of any international human rights treaty.

"This issue has nothing to do with human rights," he said, speaking before the vote. "What we find here is an attempt to change the natural right of a human being with an unnatural right. That is why calls on all members to vote against it."

Homosexuality is generally taboo in Islamic states as it is seen as a violation of religious and cultural values. Homosexual men in the Gulf are regularly arrested and sentenced to prison terms.

Mexican Ambassador Juan Jose Gomez Camacho said the issue had nothing to do with imposing Western or other values, but with non-discrimination. People are already protected under international treaties against discrimination on grounds of race, religion, and gender, he said.

The resolution calls on the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to draw up the first U.N. report on challenges faced by gay people worldwide.

Her report, due by December, should document discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel Baer told reporters the Obama administration had chosen what he described as a "course of progress" on gay rights, both domestically and internationally.

In March, the U.S. issued a nonbinding declaration in favor of gay rights that gained the support of more than 80 countries at the U.N. This has coincided with domestic efforts to end the ban on gays openly serving in the U.S. military and discrimination against gays in federal housing.

Asked what good the resolution would do for gays and lesbians in countries that opposed the resolution, Baer said it was a signal "that there are many people in the international community who stand with them, and who support them, and that change will come."

"It's a historic method of tyranny to make you feel that you are alone," he said. "One of the things that this resolution does for people everywhere, particularly LGBT people everywhere, is remind them that they are not alone."

Three years ago today, on June 16, 2008, the first same-sex marriages in California were legally recognized. That day kicked off four and a half months of same-sex couples - many of whom had been together for many years - obtaining official, legally recognized marriages. Between June 16 and November 4 of that year, 18,000 same-sex couples were married.

This week, another chapter of the marriage equality struggle in California concluded. On Tuesday, Chief Judge James Ware of the federal district court in San Francisco rejected an effort to disqualify Judge Vaughn Walker's 2010 ruling that nullified Proposition 8. Walker had come under fire by supporters of Prop. 8 when he revealed that he is gay in April of this year. Prop. 8 proponents said it was unfair for Walker to have overturned the ballot initiative's decision because he was biased.

A well-informed, thoughtful observer would recognize that the mere fact that a judge is in a relationship with another person-whether of the same or the opposite sex-does not ipso facto imply that the judge must be so interested in marrying that person that he would be unable to exhibit the impartiality which, it is presumed, all federal judges maintain. To assume otherwise is to engage in speculation about a judge's motives and desires on the basis of an unsubstantiated suspicion that the judge is personally biased or prejudiced."

This year's anniversary is far less uncertain than last year's - the Republican-appointed Ware's ruling is a significantly positive development in the marriage equality campaign in California and in the broader United States.

To the hundreds of California couples celebrating their milestones today - congratulations, and Happy Anniversary.

At today's Morning News Dump with Lizz Winstead, Pam Spaulding made the big announcement that she'll be folding Pam's House Blend into a subblog on Firedoglake. FDL founder Jane Hamsher:

Pam's House Blend has long been one of the most compelling and influential sites in the blogosphere. Founder Pam Spaulding has used the platform not only to speak out herself as a woman of color and a member of the LGBT community, but also to play host to many other fine bloggers who have worked with her to build PHB into a robust activist community. Pam was also one of my first friends when we were both posting at Daily Kos, before Firedoglake even existed.

So it gives me great pleasure to announce that Pam's House Blend will be joining the Firedoglake family of blogs. I think it's a perfect union - as the task of hosting a blog and performing the tech, legal and security work to keep it up and running becomes more and more complex and expensive, it will free Pam and her fellow bloggers to spend their time doing what they do best, which is blog. It also allows us to feature the work of a really amazing group of writers on FDL, and be tremendously enriched by the PHB community.

"We've (Southern Baptists) lied about the nature of homosexuality and have practiced what can only be described as homophobia. We've used the choice language when it is clear that sexual orientation is a deep inner struggle and not merely a matter of choice." - Southern Baptists president Albert Mohler, speaking at this year's convention. Mohler also said: "Only the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ gives a homosexual person any hope of release from homosexuality."

NOTE: It's unclear if Mohler's comments were prompted by the demand for an apology made earlier this week by groups such as GetEQUAL and Truth Wins Out.